Chapter 23 New Year’s Eve

After buying everything I needed, I also bought some yellow paper money, candles, firecrackers, etc., and treated Shen Ruobing to a meal on the street. It was a specialty of my hometown, Ruizhou pickled vermicelli.

It has been a long time since I tasted this flavor from my hometown. Yang Hai ate it with gusto and his appetite was whetted.

Shen Ruobing didn't want to eat it at first, but after eating it, she couldn't stop and praised the taste of this Ruizhou pickled vermicelli.

“It’s delicious, right? When Emperor Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River, he once visited our Ruizhou. After tasting the taste of Ruizhou pickled rice noodles, he was full of praise and even wrote a poem with his own hand to praise Ruizhou’s pickled rice noodles.” Yang Hai said with a smile.

"Emperor Qianlong even wrote a poem for this pickled vermicelli. Let's read the poem for yourself." After Shen Ruobing finished eating, she wiped her mouth with a tissue and said.

"How would I know this? I have a bad memory and can't remember it." Yang Hai quickly found an excuse and said.

In fact, he was just bragging. How would he know whether Emperor Qianlong had ever eaten Ruizhou pickled vermicelli?

"Then why would Emperor Qianlong come to your place? I don't think this place is a very famous place in Jiangnan!" Shen Ruobing said puzzledly.

"You don't understand this! Although our Ruizhou is small, it is also a place of outstanding people and has produced many historical celebrities." Yang Hai said.

"Emperor Qianlong's teacher is from our Ruizhou. He is the emperor's teacher. So why do you think Emperor Qianlong came to our Ruizhou when he went to the south of the Yangtze River?"

"And Liu Bowen, the founding prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, you know! He was also the prefect of our Ruizhou Prefecture."

Who doesn’t love his or her hometown, who doesn’t say that his or her hometown is beautiful, and who doesn’t say that his or her hometown is good?

Yang Hai was no exception. He couldn't help but brag in front of Shen Ruobing to prevent Shen Ruobing from looking down on his hometown.

After chatting for a while and resting enough, the two drove back home and started to get busy. Shen Ruobing lit a fire and warmed herself by the fire. She didn't resist and even thought it was quite fresh and fun.

Yang Hai went to his eldest cousin's house specially, got some sweet potatoes and roasted them in the stove.

In rural areas, sweet potatoes are worthless. Every household has a lot of them, and many of them are used to feed pigs.

Not long after, the rich aroma of roasted sweet potatoes wafted in the air. Shen Ruobing scraped away the firewood ash and peeled off the charred sweet potato skin, revealing the tender yellow, roasted sweet potato flesh inside. She was drooling before she even ate it; the smell was so delicious.

Although there are people selling roasted sweet potatoes on the streets of Linhai City, the taste is still different from this one. This kind of sweet potatoes roasted in the stove with firewood has a stronger aroma and seems to taste more flavorful and better.

Shen Ruobing ate with gusto. Yang Hai couldn't help laughing when he saw that after Shen Ruobing finished eating the roasted sweet potatoes, there was a lot of black charcoal ash around her lips.

"What are you laughing at?" Shen Ruobing felt puzzled.

"Go take a look at yourself in the mirror and see if you look like a greedy cat. Then you'll know whether it's funny or not." Yang Hai pointed at the edge of her lips and said.

Shen Ruobing quickly ran out to find a mirror. When she saw her funny reflection in the mirror, she couldn't help but burst into laughter. She felt that life in the countryside was actually quite fun and pretty good.

Yang Hai took some hot water, soaked a towel in it, handed it to Shen Ruobing, and asked her to wipe it.

After Yang Hai cooked the whole chicken, he also cooked a piece of pork. He took the yellow paper money, incense, candles, firecrackers, cigarettes, alcohol, and a lighter, put them in a bamboo basket, and went to visit his parents' grave with Shen Ruobing.

According to the custom in their hometown, before dark on New Year's Eve and before eating the New Year's Eve dinner, they have to go to the graves of their relatives to burn paper. They have to insert three incense sticks, light two candles, and place tributes in front of the graves of their relatives. After that, they burn some yellow paper and paper money, worship, and set off firecrackers to notify their relatives.

Yellow paper is actually paper money used in the underworld. There was no printed ghost money in the past. Only later did this kind of printed ghost money appear, which can cost 1 yuan per piece, 100 million yuan per piece, or even 1 million yuan per piece.

Some people will buy some gold ingots, even maids and servants, color TVs, refrigerators, and cars, and burn them for their relatives so that their relatives can live a good life in the underworld.

Yang Hai also toasted his father with three glasses of wine, lit three cigarettes, and placed them in front of his grave.

Because my father loved drinking and smoking. After visiting the grave, the remaining wine must be taken back, as well as chicken, meat, fruits, etc. After paying respects to relatives, these things are said to be for the dead relatives to eat, but in fact, they are eaten by the living in the end.

After returning home, it is time to formally prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner. Although there are only two of us celebrating the New Year, the ceremony is still necessary. A table of dishes must be prepared. Even if there are not 12 dishes, there must be at least 9 dishes.

It is impossible to have only three or four dishes. That would be too shabby and would not bring good luck for the coming year.

Fortunately, it is winter now, and the cooked dishes will not go bad even if they are kept for a few days.

First of all, chicken, duck, fish and meat are definitely necessary, and beef is also indispensable.

Finally, there are cured pork legs, cured sausages, fried cured meat with smoked bamboo shoots, fried meat with black fungus, large bones stewed with sweet potato flour, braised spareribs, and the soup is local chicken soup.

He easily prepared 12 dishes, which stunned Shen Ruobing. She really didn't know that Yang Hai had such a skill and was so good at cooking.

After the dishes are prepared, they are placed on the eight-immortals table in the central hall, and the New Year’s Eve dinner officially begins.

Before starting to eat, set off a string of firecrackers with 10 bangs.

The crackling sound of firecrackers, the longer they sound, the better life this family leads and the more confident and respectable they are.

The longer the firecrackers are, the more noises they make and the more expensive they are. People from poor families naturally cannot afford to buy such large firecrackers.

In fact, within this short day, the news that Yang Hai came back to celebrate the New Year, drove back, bought a Mercedes-Benz worth millions, and brought back a very beautiful and elegant wife, had already spread throughout the village.

Yangjia Village is not big, with only dozens of households in total. Any big or small event can easily spread throughout the village.

So everyone knew that Yang Hai’s previous wife had been replaced, and the wife he brought back now was no longer the same wife as before.

But this wife seems more beautiful and has more temperament, and more like someone from a big city.

Yang Hai specially bought some Ruizhou specialty rice wine, put it in an aluminum wine jug, and scalded it in hot water. The two of them drank this warm rice wine on New Year's Eve.

After eating the New Year’s Eve dinner, because Shen Ruobing was afraid of the cold, Yang Hai specially made a brazier to warm himself.

I still have a black and white TV at home that I bought earlier, so I can watch the Spring Festival Gala on it.

"Today is New Year's Eve. Do you really plan to stay up until dawn?" Shen Ruobing asked.

"No, there are not so many rules these days. If you want to keep it, then keep it. If you don't want to keep it, then don't keep it."

From time to time, the sound of children setting off firecrackers and fireworks can be heard outside. The New Year is the happiest time for children.

Originally thought, no one would come to visit on New Year's Eve, but unexpectedly, several childhood playmates, who were about the same age as Yang Hai, came to visit Yang Hai.

In fact, on New Year’s Eve in the village, many young people will visit each other, play together, play cards or do something else.

In recent years, more and more young people have gone out to work. It is rare for them to go home during the Spring Festival. Naturally, they will visit each other and chat about what they have done outside and whether they have made money.
If there are any good ways to make money, we can help each other.

Yang Hai used to be just an ordinary worker, and at most he earned a little more than the ordinary workers.

But this year is different. Yang Hai came back to celebrate the New Year, and he actually drove back a Mercedes-Benz worth more than 100 million yuan.

After this incident spread in the village, everyone became interested in Yang Hai and wanted to know what business he was doing outside and how he made so much money.
Of course, the most important thing is whether there is any way to make some money with everyone?

(End of this chapter)